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A Challenge to Aspiring Lawyers

New York State’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, is moving ahead with his groundbreaking rule requiring law students to perform 50 hours of pro bono legal services as a condition of admission to the state bar. A newly unveiled plan for putting the rule into effect should encourage other jurisdictions to follow New York’s lead.

There is a severe shortage of legal help for low-income people — a crisis that tests the conscience and vision of the legal profession. Under the new plan, developed by an advisory committee drawn from different segments of the legal community, law students will have the entire period from their first year of law school to the time they apply for bar admission to complete their mandatory service. Current third-year law students, who did not have adequate notice of the requirement, will be exempted. The service can be done anywhere, but it must be performed under the supervision of an experienced lawyer, who will have to certify the student’s performance.

The panel sensibly adopted a broad definition of service that includes volunteer legal work for nonprofit or civil rights groups or government offices, as well as representation of the poor. This reflects a judgment that different kinds of pro bono work have value.

The rule will quickly produce a few hundred thousand hours of urgently needed legal help for poor New Yorkers. For example, nearly all tenants in eviction proceedings in the city have no lawyers. Once law students become engaged, they are likely to put in more than 50 hours. For some, pro bono work will become a career-long habit. New York’s example should prompt chief justices in other states, like Stuart Rabner in New Jersey and Chase Rogers in Connecticut, to champion similar plans.

A version of this editorial appears in print on October 5, 2012, on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: A Challenge to Aspiring Lawyers. Today's Paper|Subscribe